It's #evaluationseason around the NFL as the Combine's wrapped up and collegiate Pro Days take place on campuses around the country. And although the Rams have addressed their immediate opening at the backup quarterback spot by signing Blake Bortles, adding a young quarterback in next month's NFL Draft isn't out of the question.
So what does head coach Sean McVay look for in quarterback coming out of college with hopes to make an NFL dream reality?
"Number one, are you able to throw the football accurately with some anticipation and make quick decisions?" McVay said from the NFL owners meeting in Phoenix. And without continuing his numbered list, the head coach went on to explain how young signal-callers shouldn't be written off based on how they are used in there college system.
But first and foremost, McVay says it comes down to how a prospect throws the ball — not how hard the ball is thrown. An old football family eye test.
"[A]re we able to throw the football with accuracy and anticipation? I remember my grandpa Bill Walsh always said this, it's not about the arm strength and stuff like that, it's the anticipation, the accuracy, and the ability to throw the ball as hard as necessary based on the type of throw, whether that be quick, intermediate, down the field, but being on time and rhythm, giving guys the chance to create after the catch," McVay said. "Those are the things that you're looking at."
In addition to quarterbacks throwing a catchable ball, McVay shed some light on the evaluator's side of things and how important it is to keep it in mind that at the end of the day, "football is football".
"You don't ever want to punish a guy for not doing the things that maybe you would ask them to do specific to whatever his coaches are doing in college. I think the cool things is, really when you look at a couple of years ago, not a lot of guys in the spread systems have had success — now we are coming off two-consecutive Pro Bowl seasons for [Jared] Goff, Patrick Mahomes just wins an MVP," McVay said. "I think what we are seeing is you can still have a lot of success in the NFL with coaches ability to adapt and adjust to their players' skill sets and also these guys being able to adjust."